Eliminating dengue with the World Mosquito Program

AOP partners with Monash University and the World Mosquito Program (WMP) – a not-for-profit initiative working to protect communities around the world from mosquito-borne diseases. The WMP uses safe and natural bacteria called Wolbachia to reduce the threat of dengue, Zika and chikungunya outbreaks.

The WMP is currently celebrating an historic moment, with its three-year trial in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, demonstrating a 77 per cent reduction in dengue incidence and 86 per recent reduce in dengue hospitalisation. These results provide compelling, gold standard evidence for the efficacy of the WMP’s Wolbachia method in controlling dengue.

This is the latest iteration of a decades-long partnership between AOP and Australian researchers on eliminating dengue – the most critical mosquito-borne disease in the world, with two million people infected each week.

Since 2018, AOP has assisted the WMP with a range of services, including:

• Understanding the legal, political, social, and environmental context in Vietnam and provinces where the WMP operates
• Recruiting staff and consultants
• Managing visas, contracts, and payroll
• Facilities management, including management of office lease and laboratory renovations
• Obtaining government approvals
• Procurement and logistics (e.g. transport of Wolbachia-carrying mosquitoes into the field)
• Financial management, including international funds transfers, forex, and fraud controls
• Assistance with stakeholder and community engagement
• Collaboration with local networks and partners, e.g. National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE), Pasteur Institute, and provincial authorities.

The next step in eliminating dengue

In 2020, AOP committed additional funding to the WMP to build public awareness, understanding, and acceptance of the Wolbachia method, laying the groundwork for the technology to be handed over to health authorities in the near future.

“AOP helped us get the WMP intervention into Vietnam three years sooner than what would otherwise have been possible,” said Scott O’Neill, WMP Director.

“We’ve been very fortunate to be able to work with AOP. They have been like an older brother showing us how to contribute positively to Vietnam. We are very fortunate that our program around the world is enjoying great success. We are extremely grateful for the help and assistance that AOP has been able to show us.”

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